K-Pop Gets Billboard Top 100 Chart

Billboard magazine created its second Asian music chart to cover K-Pop on Friday, with Sistar's "So Cool" ranking as the first-ever No. 1 single on the new weekly "Billboard K-Pop Hot 100."

Leessang's "I Turned Off the TV..." came in at No. 2 while 2NE1's "Ugly" grabbed third place.

The new top-100, which was released simultaneously in Seoul, Tokyo, and New York, is being compiled in conjunction with Billboard Korea. It mark’s Billboard's second music chart in the region after it first expanded to Japan.

Considering the characteristics of the Korean market, where digital music is more actively distributed than off-line album sales, the chart will be based only on the sales of digital music sources.

Billboard's headquarters collects the sales numbers of major music sites in Korea, applies different weights to them and ranks them accordingly. The K-pop chart will appear in the trade magazine in both its print and online outlets, as well as on the Korea-specific site (www.billboard.co.kr).

Founded in 1884, Billboard magazine has announced its "Billboard Chart" of popular music since the middle of the 1950s. Other than the United States, it covers around 20 countries including Japan, Australia, the U.K., Germany, France and Spain.